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Free flights home fail to tempt immigrants

A GOVERNMENT scheme to offer immigrant parents of Irish-born children a financial package to return to their home countries has failed to take off.

Only 67 people out of 11,000 eligible for the scheme have applied for the free flights, training and re-settlement programmes in their native countries.

The scheme was launched in November by the Department of Justice and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). Of the 67, 28 have returned home, while the others are still under consideration.

Despite the slow take-up, a spokesman for the Department of Justice said it is considering an extension of the programme.

The scheme was introduced as part of the government’s commitment to dealing with asylum seekers who claimed residency because of their Irish-born children. The constitution entitles a baby born anywhere in Ireland — north or south — to automatic citizenship.

In a landmark decision in January, the Supreme Court ruled that non-national